The road carpeting work on the elevated road on Jagraon bridge has been stuck for the last few weeks, leaving an uneven road jeopardising the safety of commuters.
The old asphalt layer was scraped around early April to lay a new layer. But only parts of it have been blacktopped. The road coming into the city is without an asphalt layer at irregular intervals while the speed lane on the side going towards Jalandhar bypass is totally without any block topping. This has led to accidents as speeding on the uncovered part of the road causes imbalance.
Activist Parminder Mehta, who has been taking up the issue with the municipal corporation, said that the contractor stopped the work about a month ago, soon after starting.
“There are parts that are covered and at some intervals you will find pot holes. This is a serious concern for the safety of commuters. It is hard to control the speed and restore balance,” he said.
He said that when he enquired about the reason for stopping the work, the contractor said the MC had not cleared his pending payment and he would only resume work once the payment was cleared.
Punjab State Road Safety Council member Rahul Verma, said that, “This is a very crucial road which should not have been ignored for even a day but it has been a month now. This is very dangerous for commuters.”
He added that the side of the road which has been completed so far also has very poor quality. “They are not making the road better. They are making it worse.” he noted.
{{/usCountry}}He added that the side of the road which has been completed so far also has very poor quality. “They are not making the road better. They are making it worse.” he noted.
{{/usCountry}}MC commissioner Zone A Amanpreet Singh, when approached for a comment, didn’t respond to multiple calls and texts.